{"id":239991,"date":"2016-12-07T10:24:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T17:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=239991"},"modified":"2017-01-10T06:48:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T13:48:38","slug":"while-people-and-drugs-come-north-guns-pour-south-into-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/12\/while-people-and-drugs-come-north-guns-pour-south-into-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"While people and drugs come north, guns pour south into Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Handgun\"<\/a>

kcdsTM \/ flickr<\/p>

Often overlooked in border security debates is the river of guns and ammunition that flows from the United States \u2014 especially Texas \u2014 into Mexico, arming cartels and smugglers. (photo cc info<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

Walls, fences, boots on the ground and camera-equipped blimps \u2014 all have been pitched as ways to stop the illegal flow of people and drugs over the southern border into Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n

But overlooked in the rush to secure the border, score political points and stymie the threat of spillover violence is the river of handguns, rifles, assault weapons and bullets of all shapes and sizes that continues to flow southward from the United States to Mexico, arming some of the very people officials say present the greatest threat to Americans.<\/p>\n

From 2009 to 2014, more than 73,600 guns seized in Mexico were from the United States, according to a 2016 report<\/a> from the Government Accountability Office, the congressional watchdog over the federal government.\u00a0More than\u00a013,600 were confirmed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms\u00a0and Explosives to have originated in Texas. But that figure could be higher \u2014 the report also states that because of factors like altered serial numbers on weapons and incomplete information on records, the states of origin could only be traced for about 45 percent of the U.S. total.<\/p>\n